THE FRIGHTENED WOMAN (Piero Schivazappa, 1969) ***

The battle of the sexes just got a lot weirder....

The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970)

The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion

Barbara Bouchet and Farley Granger in Amuck! (1972)

Carroll Baker, Lou Castel, and Colette Descombes in Paranoia (1969)

Nieves Navarro in Death Walks at Midnight (1972)

Florinda Bolkan in A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)

Philippe Leroy and Dagmar Lassander in The Laughing Woman (1969)

Aries, with Mars on the ascendant, tends to produce a homosexuality. If you were born on one of the last days of the month, these inclinations towards inversion will be confined to the subconscious. Taurus, with Venus on the ascendant, will favor narcissism and masturbation. The tranquilizing influence of the full moon at the moment of birth channels the onanistic instinct toward extroversion. Gemini, with Mercury on the ascendant, will emphasize masochism and sadism. If you were born during the early morning hours, your tendency will be towards masochism, with a sublimation of the sadistic urge. Cancer, with the Moon on the ascendant, highlights necrophilia. However, as the subject will rarely find occasion to indulge in this practice, most Cancerians will be drawn to scopophilism as a satisfying alternative. If the moon was in the first quarter at the time of birth, these tendencies will be manifested in a perfectly straightforward way. You have been listening to "Sexual Aberrations and the Stars."

Lorenza Guerrieri in The Laughing Woman (1969)

Dagmar Lassander in The Laughing Woman (1969)

Philippe Leroy in The Laughing Woman (1969)

Philippe Leroy

Dagmar Lassander

Lorenza Guerrieri

Piero Schivazappa

Paolo Levi

Giuseppe Zaccariello

A rich man with a penchant for degrading women subjects a female journalist to unpleasant S&amp;M games, but, unbeknownst to him, she&apos;s the one who&apos;s manipulating him.

Femina ridens

The less that is sometimes more

A young journalist, kind of a tame 60&apos;s Euro version of a feminist, finds herself kidnapped by a deranged male artist. He shows her photographs of a number of a women he claims to have killed, and promises to do the same to her when he&apos;s finished having his way with her. She seems to develop a case of Stockholm syndrome and soon becomes his willing playmate. But at the end neither of the them turns out to be what they initially appear (to give you just a hint, this movie is alternatively called either &quot;The Frightened Woman&quot; and &quot;The Laughing Woman&quot;). The plot of this movie resembles both the earlier film &quot;The Collector&quot; and the later &quot;The Story of O&quot;, but it is very different from either. It also somewhat resembles the contemporary Japanese &quot;pinku&quot; movies, but is much more tame. Like other Italian movies released by Radley Metzger&apos;s Audobon Films (i.e. &quot;La Matriarca)it kind of resembles one of Metzger&apos;s own films as well, but it is really its own unique creature.

With the possible exception of Metzger&apos;s &quot;The Punishment of Anne&quot; (which I&apos;ve never seen) this might be the best version of a B-and-D/S- and-M film. (Granted, that&apos;s not saying much). This movie works as a B-and-D fantasy because it really explores the relationship and the ever-shifting nature of power between the dominant and submissive partner, and also because, even more importantly, it STAYS at the level of fantasy. In America they are so nervous about this subject for some reason that it is actually illegal to tie someone up in a hardcore porno movie. This may not be such a bad thing though because in countries like France and Germany, which have no such compunctions, the introduction of a hardcore footage into a B-and-D plot creates a jarring realism so at odds with the psychosexual fantasy that the whole thing, far from being exciting and disturbing, is mostly just silly and stupid. (There are also, of course, plenty of people who actually live this &quot;lifestyle&quot;, but the less said of them the better).

The much more subtle, even tame approach really works here (for me). I especially enjoyed the pop-art set design and the kind of Freudian obsessions that were big in those days (i.e. one of the artists sculpture&apos;s looks like giant vagina dentata). The movie really doesn&apos;t get much more racy than Dagmar Lassender dancing around in an unraveling paper dress (but then again you ought to SEE Dagmar Lassender dance around in an unraveling paper dress), or more violent than some of the slide photographs the artist shows of his previous murder victims(which may not be genuine). I&apos;m sure this arty and rather mild movie will disappoint both the serious porn addicts and the truly perverted S-and-M/bondage freaks, but for all of us curious (but not THAT curious) Euro movie fans it&apos;s a pretty decent way to go.

Witness the ultimate subjugation of a woman to serve the most twisted desires of man in the achingly hip Â‘n&apos; horny Femina Ridens, where the kinkiest urges are played to a deadly conclusionÂ…
The beautifully sensuous Dagmar Lassander stars as Maria, the living sex toy of Dr Sayer (Philippe Leroy) who delights in killing women at the point of orgasm. Sayer&apos;s prolonged campaign of degradation pushes Maria right to the edge of death but the spell she casts on him will lead to the most extraordinary climax of a lifetime!

Stylish, imaginative and deliciously twisted, this kitschy 60s pop art erotica-fest boasts gorgeous set design, an even more alluring leading lady and a heady desire to please the viewer with increasingly bizarre and dangerous sex games.

Rebuilding The Frightened Woman has been a labour of love but thanks to the work of genre expert Marc Morris the Shameless version of The Frightened Woman runs at 86m 03secs compared to the 83m 25 secs run time supplied by the licensor.

In order to create this new Shameless version they have used a wide variety of source materials that widely vary in quality but they believe that the end result shows off the film in the complete form it has long deserved to be celebrated in including the correct colour palette.

Shameless have kept director Piero Schivazappa informed throughout the process and asked him to watch through it for them and see if he could give it his seal of approval. He kindly sat through it, with script in hand and felt that, &quot;it is as faithful as it can be to the original script&quot;, and was very happy to see the film brought back to life in this Shameless version declaring, &quot;This IS the version of my film to watch.&quot;

Shameless Screen Entertainment release The Frightened Woman on DVD. The Shameless director approved cut will run at 86m 03secs and is being released uncut by the BBFC for the first time in the UK. 

The Frightened Woman

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTk1NTIyOTEyMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDA1OTUxMw@@._V1_.jpg

A young journalist, kind of a tame 60's Euro version of a feminist, finds herself kidnapped by a deranged male artist. He shows her photographs of a number of a women he claims to have killed, and promises to do the same to her when he's finished having his way with her. She seems to develop a case of Stockholm syndrome and soon becomes his willing playmate. But at the end neither of the them turns out to be what they initially appear (to give you just a hint, this movie is alternatively called either "The Frightened Woman" and "The Laughing Woman"). The plot of this movie resembles both the earlier film "The Collector" and the later "The Story of O", but it is very different from either. It also somewhat resembles the contemporary Japanese "pinku" movies, but is much more tame. Like other Italian movies released by Radley Metzger's Audobon Films (i.e. "La Matriarca)it kind of resembles one of Metzger's own films as well, but it is really its own unique creature.

With the possible exception of Metzger's "The Punishment of Anne" (which I've never seen) this might be the best version of a B-and-D/S- and-M film. (Granted, that's not saying much). This movie works as a B-and-D fantasy because it really explores the relationship and the ever-shifting nature of power between the dominant and submissive partner, and also because, even more importantly, it STAYS at the level of fantasy. In America they are so nervous about this subject for some reason that it is actually illegal to tie someone up in a hardcore porno movie. This may not be such a bad thing though because in countries like France and Germany, which have no such compunctions, the introduction of a hardcore footage into a B-and-D plot creates a jarring realism so at odds with the psychosexual fantasy that the whole thing, far from being exciting and disturbing, is mostly just silly and stupid. (There are also, of course, plenty of people who actually live this "lifestyle", but the less said of them the better).

The much more subtle, even tame approach really works here (for me). I especially enjoyed the pop-art set design and the kind of Freudian obsessions that were big in those days (i.e. one of the artists sculpture's looks like giant vagina dentata). The movie really doesn't get much more racy than Dagmar Lassender dancing around in an unraveling paper dress (but then again you ought to SEE Dagmar Lassender dance around in an unraveling paper dress), or more violent than some of the slide photographs the artist shows of his previous murder victims(which may not be genuine). I'm sure this arty and rather mild movie will disappoint both the serious porn addicts and the truly perverted S-and-M/bondage freaks, but for all of us curious (but not THAT curious) Euro movie fans it's a pretty decent way to go.

A rich man with a penchant for degrading women subjects a female journalist to unpleasant S&M games, but, unbeknownst to him, she's the one who's manipulating him.

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